Australian Word Map

piece

a sandwich: Would you like a piece?

Contributor's comments: [WA informant] My mother in law used this word in this context all the time when I met my husband in the early 60's. I had no idea at first when she used to ask my husband and his 5 siblings if they wanted a piece - it took me ages to find out, apparently it is used in Scotland all the time.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Broken Hill "Piece" was used for sandwich.

Contributor's comments: The use of piece to refer to a sandwich is a Scottish expression. From Glasgow I used to here this all the time. My mother would ask if I wanted 'a piece and sausage' (a sausage sandwich, using a flat sausage) or a 'piece and jam' - a jam sandwich.

Contributor's comments: We always referred to a sandwich as a piece. e.g. May I have a piece please? I lived in Adelaide & that was always what we asked for on coming home from school. It was always "a piece please."

Contributor's comments: I have lived in several regions of country Victoria and also in Melbourne and never heard the term "piece" used to mean "sandwich." Where is the evidence for this usage???

Editor's comments: The first person to enter this word was from Geelong. Are there any other Victorians familiar with this usage?

Contributor's comments: [Perth informant] In our family we used the word piece as children to describe a sandwich as well.

Contributor's comments: Piece is or was used by boarding students at the Catholic school, previously orphange at Bindoon [WA], where it meant a slice of bread and jam handed out at morning recess from lessons.

Contributor's comments: My great-grandmother was English; as a child in the 50s, if she asked if I wanted a "piece", it would be a slab of bread most likely spread with dripping from the roasts, and topped with salt and pepper!!!!

Contributor's comments: [Melbourne informant] Piece was used to describe a 'piece' of bread we had after coming home from school.

Contributor's comments: the use of piece to describe a sandwich is also widespread in Northern Ireland (possibly because of historic links to Scotland). My grandmother would make up my grandfather's piece before he went to work, put it in his piece box and he would eat it during his piece break.

Contributor's comments: The word 'piece' for a sandwich or slice of bread and butter/margarine/dripping was in common usage in the English Midlands - particularly Staffordshire - where I grew up in in the 40s and 50s. It probably still is.

Contributor's comments: 'Piece' was always a term used in our family to describe a sandwich. I had not heard it used by other families so had thought it to be a quaint family idiosyncrasy. However, I have since found reference to it in literature from a play by Tom Hungerford of his personal experiences of his childhood, growing up in South Perth in the 1930's.

Contributor's comments: I haven't heard 'piece' used in Vic to mean a whole sandwich, but I have heard it used for the triangles of bread & butter with hundreds & thousands served at kids' birthday parties.